"In Signature in the Cell, Dr. Stephen Meyer shows that the digital code embedded in DNA points powerfully to a designing intelligence and helps unravel a mystery that Darwin did not address: how did the very first life begin? Follow Dr. Meyer as he investigates how new scientific discoveries are pointing to intelligent design as the best explanation for the complexity of life and the universe."

Monday, June 29, 2009

Author Dinesh D'Souza has spent the majority of his career as a political conservative author. Only recently has he stepped into the role as a Christian apologist, on a popular level. His latest book, What's so Great about Christianity, is a bold defense of Christian theism, coupled with fine scholarship. As reviewer Stanley Fish puts it:

"Rather than engaging in the usual defensive ploys, D'Souza meets every anti-God argument head on and defeats it on its own terms. He subjects atheism and scientific materialism to sustained riqourous interrogation and shows that their claims are empty and incoherent."

Dinesh has debated such well-knowns as Christopher Hitchens, Daniel Dennett, Dan Barker, Michael Shermer, and Peter Singer. You can view these debates here.

A former policy analyst in the Reagan White House, D'Souza also served as John M. Olin Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and the Robert and Karen Rishwain Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Dartmouth College in 1983. [1]

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Hello everyone! Due to the busy nature of my schedule this week, I will not be keeping up my usual post schedule. However, I will be posting when time allows. I hope to return to the usual post schedule next week.

For anyone who has read this blog for awhile, you will know that I love comic books. I always have and most likely always will. I find comics to be an excellent launching place for philosophical discussion and thinking. In some of my past posts, I have actually used comic book characters in an attempt to illustrate a point or challenge the thinking of others. For those interested, see here or here or here.

Today's resource is a free online graphic novel entitled Me, the Professor, Fuzzy, and the Meaning of Life. This graphic novel explores the question, "What gives life meaning?"

Author David Pensgard writes:"Me, The Professor, Fuzzy, and the Meaning of Life" is a very long title for a book. Yet, these three characters each play an essential role in ferreting out the answers to the big questions. All of these questions, as well as the efforts of all three characters, represent attempts to get at the very meaning of life itself."

This graphic novel provides a fresh way of examining and pondering age old questions.

It seems appropriate to end this series with an article by Dr. Moreland because he is one of the apologists leading the movement to restore the view of Jesus as "the smartest man who ever lived."

Dr. Moreland's book, Love Your God with All Your Mind, co-authored with philosopher Dallas Willard, is considered by many to be essential reading for the apologist and layman alike.

In today's essay, Moreland expands on this idea. He writes:

"To my mind, Jesus was the greatest thinker who ever lived. And while he did not come to develop a theory about logic or to teach logic as a field of study, it is clear that he was adept at employing logical forms and laws in his thinking and reasoning. We who are his followers should go and do likewise."

Regardless of your level of education in regard to logic, this article will challenge you and hopefully assist you in viewing Jesus in a new way: as an intellectual.

Thursday, June 18, 2009

As we continue our series, "The Greatest Apologist Who Ever Lived: Jesus," we will take a look at an article by Dallas Willard that really serves to compliment Willard's lecture, featured on Truthbombhere, entitled Jesus as an Logician and Apologist.

"In understanding how discipleship to Jesus Christ works, a major issue is how he automatically presents himself to our minds. It is characteristic of most 20th century Christians that he does not automatically come to mind as one of great intellectual power: as Lord of universities and research institutes, of the creative disciplines and scholarship. The Gospel accounts of how he actually worked, however, challenge this intellectually marginal image of him and help us to see him at home in the best of academic and scholarly settings of today, where many of us are called to be his apprentices."

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Baker Books, the books publisher, offers the following synopsis:"Jesus was the ultimate defender of the faith. Learn from his example how to give a valid defense of your beliefs. Apologetics books abound, but how did Jesus defend the faith? The Apologetics of Jesus presents the Savior at his convincing best. The most tentative Christian--or belligerent skeptic--will find meaty arguments for the godhead of Christ through his parables, prophecies, and more.

This hard-hitting resource shows how Christ led the curious to commitment. In this original book, readers will find a new way of looking at the message and miracles of Christ and will be revived by the example of Christ's caring approach to dealing with doubters. Recommended for both laypeople and ministry leaders alike."

Publishers Weekly had the following to say about the book:

"Jesus is presented as the ultimate apologist, as one who 'was familiar with and utilized all the basic laws of rational thought and reasoning processes.' This is quite a claim, and one that may not be evident from a simple reading of the gospels. But in the competent and skilled hands of Geisler and coauthor Zukeran . . . the thesis gains some credibility."

Make no mistake, this book is on the top of my summer reading list! Check out this interview with co-author Pat Zukeran, as he explains how the book came about and sustains that Jesus "presented reasons and compelling evidence to support His claims."

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

As we continue our series on the "Greatest Apologist Who Ever Lived," I ponder the question, "Why are so many believers in Christ reluctant to see Jesus as an intellectual?" After all, it was Jesus Himself who said:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37, ESV, Emphasis mine).

Moreover, Jesus Himself engaged in intellectual conversations and used brilliant parables to illustrate and communicate truths.

Charles Sheldon once wrote a book entitled In His Steps and from it spawned the often repeated question, "What would Jesus Do?" My hope and prayer is that by the end of the week, you may answer that question with a resounding, "He would engage His audience intellectually!"

Monday, June 15, 2009

Hello everyone! This week's series stems from a comment I once heard Dr. JP Moreland make while attending an apologetics conference:

"Jesus Christ is the smartest man who ever lived."

I must confess, up until that time, I had not thought of Jesus Christ as an intellectual. I thought of Him as Savior; I thought of Him as "meek and mild;" but I never thought of Him as "the smartest man who ever lived."

Since then, I have come across numerous resources that present Jesus as a master apologist, philosopher, and logician.

As Dr. Moreland stated in his message, [the message provided here is not exactly like the one I heard, but similar] the church has lost this view of Jesus and the consequences have been numerous. Sincere questioners have been discouraged from thinking about their faith and feelings have been elevated above good, sound thinking. As Moreland puts it, "It should be a both/and."

This week, our goal is to present various articles and lectures that hopefully serve to restore a valid, actual view of Jesus as an intellectual. Perhaps you have never viewed Jesus as an "intellectual;" I pray that this week's series will challenge you. After all, if Jesus Christ truly is God's own Son, it logically follows that He is "the smartest man who ever lived..."

"What primarily seems to motivate atheists isn't rationalism but anger -- anger that the world isn't perfect, that someone forced them to go to church as children, that the Bible contains apparent contradictions, that human beings can be hypocrites and commit crimes in the name of faith. The vitriol is extraordinary. Hitchens thinks that "religion spoils everything." Dawkins contends that raising one's offspring in one's religion constitutes child abuse. Harris argues that it "may be ethical to kill people" on the basis of their beliefs. The perennial atheist litigant Michael Newdow sued (unsuccessfully) to bar President Obama from uttering the words "so help me God" when he took his oath of office.

What atheists don't seem to realize is that even for believers, faith is never easy in this world of injustice, pain and delusion. Even for believers, God exists just beyond the scrim of the senses. So, atheists, how about losing the tired sarcasm and boring self-pity and engaging believers seriously?"

Finally, in this short little audio (2:17), Dr. Craig and Kevin Harris discuss the oft repeated claim that an atheist is someone who simple "lacks belief in God..." Check it out here. Thanks Apologetics 315.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

God's ultimate purposes for human beings are often mentioned in the Bible, our only reliable authority about him. Among his many purposes, God created the earth and its creatures for the dominion of human beings (Genesis 1:26-28). But his ultimate objectives for humans are that they:

freely love him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength (Mark 12:30)

worship him forever (Revelation 4:21-22)

enjoy direct fellowship with him (Revelation 21:3)

enjoy an eternal life that is beyond earthly imagination (Matthew 13:44-46)

How God's Objectives Fit with the Kind of World We Live In

1. God had to create something. Otherwise his objectives could not have been expressed.

2. God could have created a world without evil. Humans could have been "programmed" to always choose the right and holy path. This would have resulted in a world of God-directed "robots." Love would not exist, because love requires a free-will choice. You cannot program something to love you. (For example, one could program a computer to say "I love you"- but naturally that would not be real love.)

3. Since God loves perfectly, and since he desires human beings to love him perfectly in turn, mankind was allowed free will. This gave human beings the opportunity to choose to love both God and others. However, it also allowed them the choice not to love. God's decision to allow free will resulted in a perfect world- but one that has been and is being used for imperfect choices.

4. Though God created everything perfect, perfect things can be and are used for evil.

Fire can heat or cook, but it can also injure and kill.

Nuclear energy can generate electricity, but it can also be used for bombs.

Metal can be used for many wonderful things, but it can also be made into guns.

Our minds can be used to help people, but they can also be used to hate people.

5. Evil is a choice to misuse perfect things, thus bringing corrupt results. Evil is not a "thing;" it is the absence of a thing- the absence of purity and holiness. It is the misuse of things that were created perfect and were meant to be used perfectly. In other words, evil could not be defined, nor could it even exist, if there were no holy, pure things in the first place. To give a couple of rough examples, if no sight existed, how would we know the evil of someone's gouging out another's eyes with his perfect thumbs? If humans had no legs to begin with, how would we know the evil of becoming paralyzed in an accident caused by a drunk driver- the result of misusing God's perfect gift of a mind and a properly functioning car?

6. A loving God could let everyone-even very evil people-into heaven. After all, wouldn't that be perfect forgiveness and love? However, it would contradict the other attributes of God's character-his perfect holiness and justice-because evil would enter the holy place where God lives, and because it would be unjust-evil would not receive its proper penalty. Consequently, the world God created required 1) choice, so that we can show perfect love for him; and 2) redemption, so that his perfect justice and holiness can be expressed (Romans 3:21-26).

Through Jesus we can be "made perfect" (Hebrews 10:1-4). But we need to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, turning from evil, so we can gain his ultimate perfection. Jesus came to earth as a human, suffering all temptations and trails of a human being so we could relate to him. Then he allowed himself to be executed in one of the most horrible, painful, and humiliating ways ever conceived by humans- to demonstrate God's great love for us and to provide forgiveness for all who want it. Rejecting, or not accepting, this free gift of love and forgiveness is the ultimate demonstration of disdain for God.

"I found A Good Reason for Evil a great read. Koukl destroyed the atheist argument that there is no God because evil exists. To concede that evil exists also concedes an objective moral law because how do we know something is evil? Therefore, there must be a moral lawgiver. So, they cannot even use evil as an argument. In fact they cannot even call it evil based on their system of belief. If there is no God, no life after this one, then it is just the way things are, it does not even matter.

His case [Koukl's] for God not creating evil was also amazing. God created all things, evil is a thing, therefore God created evil. Evil is not a thing. It is the absence of good the same way cold is the absence of heat and shadow is the absence of light. God created freewill, a good thing, for us. But with that free will we chose to disobey Him thus causing evil. Our actions cause evil."

Monday, June 08, 2009

Dallas Willard is a professor in the school of philosophy at the University of Southern California. He also publishes and lectures on the topic of Christianity.Willard, in my view, is one of the best Christian philosophers writing today. He has the ability to communicate the gospel message in a clear, logically sound manner that challenges the listener to consider the claims of Jesus Christ.

His undergraduate studies were at William Jewell College, Tennessee Temple College (B.A., 1956, Psychology) and Baylor University (B.A., 1957, Philosophy and Religion); and his Graduate education was at Baylor University and the University of Wisconsin (Ph. D., 1964: Major in Philosophy, Minor in the History of Science). [1]

Thursday, June 04, 2009

In James Hoskins' short story, Confessions, Adam is a young man who is losing his faith in the Church...the Church of Chance. And try as he may to hold on to his beliefs, they seem to be slowly dying.

As Father Anthony, a Church clergymen, tries to offer Adam council from the "Holy Canon," he becomes noticeably uncomfortable with Adam's probing questions. And not even the words of the apostle Dawkins, or a reference to Saint Darwin, serve to ease Adam's angst.

Monday, June 01, 2009

Josh McDowell's story is well known. As a young man, he considered himself to be an agnostic and believed that to become a Christian, he would have to "throw his brain out."

Then, McDowell was challenged to intellectually investigate the claims of Jesus Christ and Christianity. During this investigation, in which McDowell claims to have studied the resurrection for 700 + hours, he found compelling and convincing evidence that Christianity was indeed true.

Josh gave his life to Christ and his life changed drastically.

Although McDowell's focus has changed in recent years (much of his ministry is geared toward families and teens), I believe his work is valuable; especially for the believer or non-believer who is just beginning to study the various evidences for Christianity. Josh's work is simple, easy to understand, and provides a fairly solid base for the Christian who desires to defend their faith.